Rules question…

@pillhuhn Thank you for all of your answers, they helped me.

Wow, awesome post! Thank you for the infomation.

Wow. Some really informative and helpful replies. Thanks.

@kurt3892:

-There is a downloadable 3rd edition rulebook on the AAWC site…it is under ‘Other options’ under downloads.  You need Winzip to open it.

I downloaded that–thanks for the link–and it is the .PDF of the manual for the game. It explains the “Third Edition” rule changes, but isn’t what I’d consider an actual new edition of the rulebook.

If there never was a full rulebook that was included with any print runs of the board game, or available for download/purchase to owners of the board game, that makes it more understandable that the non-CD-ROM-based A&A crowd pretty much universally sticks to Second or Fourth Edition rules.

Also, it would take some creativity with the bits to bring the Marines and Destroyers from Iron Blitz over to the board game. If I were Hasbro, I would’ve prepared a “Third Edition/Iron Blitz Expansion Pack” to sell in stores with a shiny new rulebook, and pieces for the two new unit types, when Iron Blitz came out. But that would’ve required the project as a whole to have been much better-conceived than it actually was, I guess.

(For instance, how incompetent do you have to be to print way, way too few copies of even a poorly executed computer implementation like A&A: Iron Blitz, and never press any fresh CDs even when used copies turn up on eBay for $100-plus? Was there some reason they left money sitting on the table like that?)

Gracias Senor, forever in your debt. :-D

I’d still check out the Atari “Axis & Allies,” unless you have NO interest in RTS (as stated, like Command & Conquer).  It trades strategy for faced pace action, and can be fun with friends on a LAN.  I got a chance to play for a while, and it can be entertaining, for a short time…
Others to try would be Sudden Strike, another RTS but not as goofy, and my all time favorite RTS involving WW2 material: Close Combat.  A damn good game…
I downloaded a copy of Iron Blitz from a website I can’t remember - I’ll try and track it down.  It was a relatively small download, runs fairly well (gets slower and slower as you go on, even when turning down some of the settings), and is FREE!!!

@Linkon:

Attacking US w/Jpn looks great on paper, but in real time and turns, stalls the taking of Rus.  With every passing turn, the Allied economic advantage will make them stronger in arms.

So true.  Attacking the US (except for China & Sinkiang) is a BAD move.

Japan is the nation that can turn the economic tide in favor of the Axis in short order.  By focusing on a steady assault on Russia using a Japan transport fleet (using a fleet instead of an IC is faster, more flexible, and helps keep the US “honest” since those forces can reach AK in a single move) combined with a modest roving south pacific/indian ocean fleet, Japan can quickly be the leading IPC nation in the game.  In games I have played, it is not unusual for Japan to be in the 40’s for IPC’s by the end of round 2.

A Japan with more IPC’s than the US (down to 32 at most), with UK weakened (low 20’s or teens depending on Germany in Africa) and Russia in the teens or less after losing the eastern territories, the economic winds favor the Axis.

Then it only is a matter of Japan playing smart 9since they have most of the IPC’s) to crush Russia, saving the Germans, and then turning on the US while bombing the tar out of UK…

@morten200:

Jefe: How is this different from the rules you play with? No one is arguing against the defender choosing his own losses and the attacker choosing his own losses.

Sometimes I think he reads every other line of the post he is questioning. :wink:

Do you guys actually waste your money rolling for industrial technology? I’ve found that my lucky is pretty shabby when it comes to that and I spend a minimum of twenty Ipcs just to get A industrial tech, let alone the one i want! Spend your money on actualy troops and you’ll go a lot further